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15 Handy Google Chrome Apps You Can Use Offline

A lot of us take our work (and live our lives) online now and the scariest thing that could happen is losing the Internet connection that we depend on so much! In situations like these, it’s great to have useful applications that work offline. These don’t necessarily have to be computer applications though – they can also be Google Chrome applications.

Chrome Apps, not to be confused with Chrome Extensions, are often just bookmarks that take you to a Web service. Other times, they’re full-blown applications built exclusively for Google Chrome. One of the best things about Chrome Apps is that many of them have the ability to run offline.

If you like a distraction-free environment when writing or blogging, Writebox is an offline text editor that syncs with Dropbox, and automatically saves your work as you write. You can also load documents directly from Dropbox for editing. It’s simple and looks great in fullscreen mode. You may also like QwikNote and Litewrite, which are two very similar distraction-free offline text editors.

MomoNote is a personal memo application that can serve as a private diary, personal journal, or just a place to jot down your notes and ideas. If you’re using the iPad or iPhone version, this Web version can sync with the mobile versions and via your Google account.

If you need help managing your time, for example, keeping track of how much time you waste on your social networks, Task Timer can help you manage your time better, by showing you how you are spending your precious 24 hours. You can also add goals to your tasks, and get desktop notifications with sound.

Need access to your gmail offline? This is the app for you. It lets you check your inbox, respond to messages, and compose messages while offline. Once you’re back online, it will send out any messages that you have in your outbox. The app also automatically syncs messages and queued actions when get back online and run Chrome.

Scribbles is described as “stickies on steroids.” With it, you can create sticky notes on a single Chrome tab and access them whenever you like. It’s a great way to organize your quick thoughts, ideas, reminders, tasks and more.

SocialBro is a great Twitter CRM dashboard that’s especially great for social media and community managers. It includes analytics reports, Twitter list management, competitor analysis, hashtag and keyword monitoring, advanced search, filters, and more.

OrganizeMe lets you manage your Springpad account offline, via a stylish, organized dashboard. You can manage all your notes, lists, browser bookmarks, to-dos, recipes etc, you save to Springpad. You can also import your data from Evernote and Google Note, and manage it all from a single location.

Quick Note is just that: a quick way to take notes in Chrome. The app is lightweight and can be used as a notepad, scratchpad, clipboard, or as a way to create to-do lists. Quick Note lets you sync your notes to the cloud, but you can still make notes when it is offline.

Read Later Fast, another Chrome app by Diigo, is another personal favorite of mine. It lets you save pages to be read later, whether you’re online or offline. It’s also a great way to eliminate the issue of having too many tabs. You can save pages via right-click or a customizable keyboard shortcut.

Bonus: 5 More Apps

If you get too bored while being offline, you can use this app to learn the piano. Much like the old-school game Simon Says, Color Piano uses colors to teach you songs; there’s no need for sheet music.

Webcam Toy is an app tailor-made for webcam users. You can use it to take photos and add over 70 fun effects to them. From there you can save them to your computer, or share them on Twitter and Facebook once you’re back online.